cyclicmicky

I flew back from Kuala Lumpur to Heathrow on a Malaysian 747 with 44 pax on board...very comfortable it was too. Spent an hour or more on the flight deck as well, pity your not allowed up there any more.

BALIX

2 pax on a 744? I wonder if they were upgraded?

Emptiest flight I ever went on was my first ever fam flight, a Dan Air 727 from Manchester to Palma. Pack to the rafters on the way out, I was the only passenger on the way back. (It was the first flight of the summer season...)

Also was one of nine pax on an Air UK 146 from Glasgow to Stansted. Three of them (ie, Mrs Balix, Junior Balix and myself) were on staff subload ID80 tickets. Needless to say we received our boarding cards when we checked in!

sixmilehighclub

I flew from SIN to SYD earlier this year as one of 25 pax on a B744. The aircraft the day before had returned to SIN with an emergency landing (precautionary & uneventful). The pax from that flight had been rebooked onto a combination of other airlines and onto the remaining space on the next days flight. All pax on my flight were staff.

The aircraft, crew and cargo needed to get to Sydney, and the scheduled return flight needed to get the aircraft, crew, passengers and cargo from Sydney to Singapore. If that first sector hadn't operated at all, it would have had a huge negative impact on the operation.

frangatang

I took a 777 lhr to washington a few years ago,empty aprt from we 2 pilots.No passengers due to lack of cabin crew so they cancelled that sector but the aircraft was still neede for the return flight. Ohh and cabin crew do make a dive for the bunks asap. The 747 is used to go to cairo,bunks are fitted to the aircraft and what is interesting is the bunks are prepared with pillow cases and blankets with the intent that the dearies have time to go to bed!

Jordan D

frangatang - indeed, BA are still using the 747 on their Cairo route (travelled return the week before X'mas), and I have to admit on the return to LHR, the crew were conspicuous by their absence after serving the meal (breakfast) which was completed 45mins after take off.

Jordan

JW411

Some 20 years ago there was a very famous story about a BA 747 flight from SFO - LHR in the national press.

This flight took off with just one revenue passenger on board.

BA decided to make a bit of publicity out of the event and made a big deal of how it was that the flight still left on time etc.

The passenger was upgraded to first class and he was treated like royalty.

Sadly it was discovered on arrival at Heathrow that his baggage had been lost!

xrba

Interesting 411, but has any other airline ever despatched an aircraft from it's home base on a round trip knowing that it had one pax for the outbound sector and nil back [and nil freight]. Not positioning, not due to down-route unserviceability, not off-loading pax on other flights for whatever reason, knowingly sending out an empty a/c. In the 90's I regularly commanded RBA 767s with loads in single figures as did my colleagues. Figures in the teens were considered quite respectable, and in fact welcomed by the cabin crew!

Full Emergency

I am not supprised that the flight left for LHR with only two passengers. A 757 left LHR yesterday at around 1800 bound for EDI with only 5. They did have a full load to collect at EDI though.

You can not afford to have a plane and crew out of position. Look at the chaos that happened during the summer strike over the Gate Gourmet thing...

FE

averytdeaconharry

The most bizarre flight I ever did was from Kinshasa to Brussels on an Air Zaire 747 operated by a Pan Am crew. In first class there were 6 pax. I was with 2 colleagues and we travelled for free. The other three were a LH flight deck crew on a positioning flight. They also travelled for free. In the economy cabin were 6 LH cabin crew also travelling free. The plane was delayed by 2 hours because of what were called loading difficulties. It was in the days of reel to reel film cartridges for the IFE. On this flight the system well and truly broke down. The film started spilling all over the cabin. It took the flight engineer well over an hour to sort it all out. I travelled many times on Air Zaire. I never paid for any ticket and the maximum load I ever encountered was 14. On one occasion the aircraft (a DC10) made a stop at MAD en route from BRU to FIH. No one got off and no one joined there. It was a complete waste of money but it was on time. I flew several times between FIH and Europe on KLM and Sabena. Every time the flights were packed.

FormerFlyer

I recall operating NCE-LTN several years ago in Feb with grand total of 2 pax.

We didn't half fight over who had to serve them

cheers
FF